Can tall runner qualify for Boston?

How long have you been running?

I think qualifying is very doable for you, it just may take longer than a year to get there

And how many days in a week do you run?

I know guys your height who have BQ’d.

There are thousands of 6'4" and up runners who qualify for Boston. Jack Bacheler was an Olympian in the marathon at 6'7". Luke Puskedra is 6'4" and has run 2:10.

you are correct that tall, and especially heavy, good marathoners are rare. But they do exist. Here are the top 10 in the Clydesdale division at MCM a few years ago:

wt time age

1 185 2:47:09 ERIC WYLER 28

2 195 2:50:35 ALEXANDER HETHERINGTON 49

3 185 2:57:38 THOMAS SCOVEL 29

4 185 3:00:09 BRADLEY BROOKS 22

5 195 3:00:24 CHRISTOPHER SPRINGER 35

6 190 3:03:12 MATTHEW DENT 42

7 185 3:06:07 JEFF WEBB 43

8 200 3:06:59 JAY JOHNSON 37

9 195 3:07:36 JASON VAN HORN 43

10 185 3:09:17 BRENDAN JONES 28

A 185 lb guy ran 2:47 and an almost 50 yr old almost 200 lb guy ran 2:50. It can be done.

That's in real life. On letsrun there are 240 lb guys who run 2:40 and hundreds of over 200 lb anonymous guys who run under 3 hours. :-)

From your question it sounds like you're fairly new to running. Your times are good enough that improving to BW level sounds feasible.

https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a20855134/great-marathoners-over-six-feet-tall-are-rare/

no next year they will have a max height that they will allow to enter in an effort to keep the number of entries down. sorry maybe in a few years it will open back up

Don't get in your own head about this. Your height is not a limiting factor. All that matters is how well you train and staying healthy. Almost anybody who's young and healthy can train themselves to run some 7 minute miles.

I'm 6'9" and never a very good runner, but I ran 58 minutes for 10 miles and I'm sure sub 2:50 for a marathon would have been do-able. There was a Florida State runner a few years ago at 6'10" and he ran ~ 14:305k.

I am pretty much your size, 6'3 and 185 but 10 years younger. Ran 16:high 5K and 1:19flat half on 35-45 miles/week. So performance gets worse with distance and for marathon I do not think I would go much under 3 hours, but it's certainly doable. You will slowdown sligtly more then identical smaller size runner, but really it's a question of training as you cannot change your height.

Height has almost nothing to do with distance running. Train harder.

Thanks for all the comments! I appreciate your knowledge and tips. I am newer to running. I’ve done some 5ks over the years. Now I run 4-6 miles every other day, with a long run of 11-14 miles on the weekend. I put in some track days and hill repeats as well. I just don’t see a lot of improvement from where I am now. As I’ve tried to increase distance I’ve noticed that it is harder to dissipate heat due to my surface area to mass ratio in comparison to smaller people. I can imagine that a smaller, lighter frame would be beneficial to shed heat and would require less energy to move. However, knowing I can’t change that, the fact that others have been successful is good news. It sounds like I need to put in more miles and training to find my true limits. Thanks again for the help!

Those guys are Clydesdale's? Only one guy is 200lbs. I'd be skin and bones if I got down to 185-190lbs.

I feel like you may be thinking too much about your body heat. Might depend on where you live and the time of day you train? Could possibly be you are running too fast on workouts or long runs?

What do you do when you hit the track? If your focus is on the marathon, then a lot of your workouts should be in the marathon/tempo range with a little bit of dipping down to 10k/5k pace. So depending on what you do at the track, you may need to change your focus to longer intervals at more marathon/half marathon pace.

Someone already posted this, but yeah, sorry. Boston isn’t allowing runners over 6’0” :/

I’m 6'5”, ~205 lbs, late 40s, with a lean frame (not too much excess weight to lose), training “seriously” (at least consistently) for about 7 years. I’ve run a recent 1:36 half and 3:28 full... still a bit away from BQ, but close enough to keep trying to improve. Keep at it! With consistency you’ll see improvement, and don’t forget at 45 your BQ time will be slower. Don’t overthink the big/tall stuff and count yourself out. Put in the work, and you’ll get out what you put in. Good luck!

mortyd wrote:

As I’ve tried to increase distance I’ve noticed that it is harder to dissipate heat due to my surface area to mass ratio in comparison to smaller people.

Oh come on, taller people tend to have a higher surface area to mass ratio, not lower. Just drop all these lame excuses and run more

I'm 6'4" about 185 lbs normally...hard training will get me down to around 175 lbs. I'm not that great or anything but I went sub 16 5k, 1:13 half, sub 2:40 marathon last year. It's doable, just train and dont get hurt

I just got an email from the BAA and they're not letting any tall runners in next year.

I'm 6'2" and ran 2:44 in my first and only marathon. Not sure what the BQ time is, but I think I may have qualified. I only ran the marathon on a whim.and only really trained 8 weeks for it. My long runs were 16, 18, 20, 18, 20, 18, 16, then the race. I wasn't prepared for the last 5 miles.

Hardloper wrote:

Oh come on, taller people tend to have a higher surface area to mass ratio, not lower. Just drop all these lame excuses and run more

You are seriously confused.

enough already wrote:

no next year they will have a max height that they will allow to enter in an effort to keep the number of entries down. sorry maybe in a few years it will open back up

This. I heard that BAA is capping participant heights at 6 ft and is requiring a proof-of-height form from an MD, to be submitted at registration. In addition, they’re putting a 6’ roof over the start corrals so that any tall people who manage to slip through registration can’t fit in, lol. ?